Fighting for basic necessities, inmates at Attica Correctional Facility set in motion a riot on September 9, 1971, that would end in tragedy four days later when authorities entered the premises and 39 people were killed in the raid. The deadly incident, which mostly affected men of color, remains a testament of the brutality of the American prison system, an apparatus that dehumanizes those serving time.

With their documentary “Attica” —currently streaming on Showtime — co-directors Stanley Nelson and Traci Curry revisit and expand on the narrative with information from those who lived to tell their story.

Nelson, who was around 20 years old when the riots transpired, remembered the general outline of what took place, but the details were vague. The idea of making a movie that could tell the full story had percolated in his mind for several decades.

“I knew that the story hadn’t been adequately explained,” said Nelson during a virtual Q&A as part of the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series. “I figured that if there were a thousand prisoners in the yard during the rebellion, some of them would probably be alive. There were people to talk to, but they were getting older and that window was closing on getting their firsthand account of what happened.”

Read more at IndieWire.